Jimmy Carter Gave Willie Nelson 1/2 Blame for His Success and Mistakes.

Willie Prefers an "Austin Torpedo"

On This Date In History: It’s just an odd coincidence that former presidential press secretary Jody Powell died todayat the same time that today’s look at history revolves around his old boss. Remember during the 1976 Presidential election how Jimmy Carter used his stellar integrity as a campaign club? Remember the famous “lust in my heart” comment and the focus on his Southern Baptist upbringing? President Carter was extremely bright. He served honorably in the United States Navy as a Captain directly under the command of Admiral Hyman Rickover aka the “father of the nuclear navy”. President Carter was known as a peanut farmer in campaign literature but the truth is he was a nuclear engineer of great ability. He and President Herbert Hoover are the only academically trained engineers to serve as President…you can draw your own conclusions. Anyway, all of this makes what happened in the middle of September 1980 all that more remarkable.

On this date in 1980, the old Red Headed Stranger was probably feeling pretty good about himself. Just the day before, on September 13, 1980 President Carter hosted a concert by none other than Willie Nelson at the White House. Willie Nelson of “Whiskey River” and “Outlaw” fame. Willie Nelson on his 3rd marriage at the time. Later Nelson went on to run up an interesting rap sheet of marijuana arrests and was convicted of failure to pay his income taxes. Not one to be kept down, Willie made a new record called The IRS Tapes: Will You Buy My Dreams? A lot of people did because Willie paid back the hundreds of thousands, if not millions(I can’t remember how much it was) in back taxes.

But, I suppose to forgive is Divine, especially if you are forgiving a country music star with some good tunes. Seems President Carter liked to listen to Nelson’s music while pondering policy and other items associated with the pressures of being President. Carter told Rolling Stone magazine, “All the good things I did as president, all the mistakes I made — you can blame half of that on Willie.” Nelson, who was a public supporter of NORMAL (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws) exercised his protest right, I suppose, by lighting up what he called “a big fat Austin torpedo” while on the White House roof. That would be a giant joint for all of you lacking in the hip verbiage of the day. Carter said he never knew about it but Nelson claims the Secret Service kept a sharp eye on him while he sparked up on the Carter White House roof. Nelson has traced his lineage to the American Revolution. Perhaps he was doing his version of the Boston Tea Party as he toked away on top of the Presidential residence. As it turns out, apparently Willie wasn’t the only entertainer to spark up at the White House. Here is a list of 5 who make the claim to smoking doobs at the Executive Mansion.

Weather Bottom Line: Our string of really nice weather will be coming to a halt but its unclear to what degree. We have a weak front trying to make its way down. To the south, we have an inverted trof coming in. That is when the trof is sticking up northward instead of digging southward as we usually expect. The parent low really doesn’t come all that far inland so, at the least, we’ll have clouds increasing. If the front comes to our south, then we have overrunning clouds and maybe a shower. If the front goes far enough south, then the clouds may get shoved out and the rain chances decrease. On the other hand, the front may flop back and forth. It’s really a tough call and you’ll probably see some CYA forecasts for the next few days with about a 30% chance of rain or t’storms each day for the rest of the week. To be more definitive than that really gets beyond the realm of the abililty to forecast, IMO. So, just think it won’t be a disaster…as long as the inverted trof and parent low don’t come farther inland…but it won’t be as lovely as its been.

3 Responses

Jimmy Carter: Smart man. Crummy president. It proves that you don’t have to know everything to be a good leader, you just have to surround yourself with people who do know things and shepherd those resources to do the right thing. When you’re a “know-it-all” it makes it hard to let those “beneath” you shine. Kind of a shame. So typical, I’m afraid. Carter honors Willie and Willie smokes a big joint on the roof of the White House to show his appreciation. I’ll bet he still brags about that one!

Eric - September 15, 2009 at 1:35 am

Presidential history is not a good advertisement for engineers. Or maybe a great advertisement..smart guys are too busy working for a living toward the advancement of mankind to have time to be a politician!